The Dumpling Queen, the highest-grossing film in May, features actress Ma Li as a strong woman who rises from a humble street vendor to a business legend and establishes a renowned frozen dumpling brand. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Ma Li, known for her light roles, brings a tear to the eye in the biopic The Dumpling Queen, Xu Fan reports.

She's best known for making audiences double over with laughter. But in her latest role, Ma Li — one of China's most bankable comedic actresses — proves she can also break their hearts. The Dumpling Queen, marking Ma's first such departure from her usual crowd-pleasing roles in hits such as Goodbye Mr. Loser and Successor, has earned 411 million yuan ($57.2 million) at the box office, becoming one of the country's most commercially successful blockbusters this year.

During a recent interview with China Daily, Ma shares that she immediately connected with the biopic, which recounts a tenacious mother's unwavering love for her two young daughters, when Hong Kong director Andrew Lau invited her to join the project.

"The character has reminded me of my own mother, who never backs down, no matter how tough life gets," Ma recalls.

A native of Northeast China's Liaoning province, Ma once described herself on a variety show as "someone without a childhood" after her parents divorced when she was 8 years old. However, her mother, a businesswoman in the catering industry, provided her with enough support — until a financial crisis hit in 2003.

Then a fresh graduate of the Central Academy of Drama, Ma realized she had to become the breadwinner. She began chasing every opportunity, including working as an extra for just 50 yuan and waking up around 4 am to take the bus to give children acting lessons.

Thanks to being recognized for her comedic talents through her work with the popular troupe Mahua FunAge, Ma built a strong reputation — from stage plays to Spring Festival galas — eventually rising to the top ranks of stardom with multiple blockbusters, including director Zhang Yimou's Article 20, which earned her Best Actress at the 37th Hundred Flowers Awards.

A scene features the protagonist with her two daughters.[Photo provided to China Daily]

For Ma, the new film represents a return to the roots of her decades-long career. "It has enabled me to go back to the essence of acting — using the simplest techniques to portray the real life of an extraordinary woman," she explains.

Inspired by the real-life story of Zang Jianhe (1945-2019), a business legend who founded a renowned food brand, the film follows Ms Zang (played by Ma), a 32-year-old mother who leaves her hometown in East China's Shandong province to seek a better life in Hong Kong. Despite not speaking Cantonese and being separated from her husband, she juggles three exhausting jobs: caring for an elderly woman in the morning, washing dishes at a restaurant, and cleaning trams at night. However, after a fall leaves her with a severe back injury, the protagonist reaches a breaking point, even contemplating jumping from a rooftop in despair.

Fortunately, a kindhearted neighbor — a dessert soup vendor — offers a glimmer of hope. Inspired, she turns to the one skill she knows best: making dumplings, a craft passed down from her mother. Through sheer resilience and relentless effort, she overcomes many hardships, rising from a humble street vendor to successfully establishing her own food brand, selling frozen dumplings overseas.

She recalls her first meeting with director Lau, known for blockbusters like Infernal Affairs, where he shared touching stories about growing up in Tai Kei Leng village, a rural part of Hong Kong, under the care of his mother — a strong and resilient woman who raised six children.

Director Andrew Lau (center) and actress Ma Li (fourth from right) at the film's premiere in Beijing. [Photo provided to China Daily]

The movie vividly re-creates Wan Chai district between 1977 and the early 1980s, where the protagonist rents a cramped tenement room. These sets are infused with Lau's personal nostalgia — so much so that he even included a black-and-white photo of his own family in one scene, featuring his mother and siblings, blending his history with the film's narrative.

Ma shares more insights into the film's emotional core: "Zang's story embodies the universal emotions we associate with maternal love. Director Lau also emphasized his hope to use this film to recapture the warmth of neighbors supporting one another and finding solace together in difficult times."

To fully immerse herself in the role, Ma gained an extra 10 kilograms and spent 200 hours learning how to knead dough — a key step in making dumplings. "The intensive practice helped build muscle memory, which laid a solid foundation for me to portray the character more authentically," she says.

Recalling one of the biggest challenges during the shoot, Ma says most of the actors speak Cantonese — forcing her to memorize their lines to ensure her responses were accurate.

As she couldn't understand their conversations during breaks, the experience unexpectedly gave her a sense of loneliness, which helped her relate more deeply to her character. Like the protagonist she portrays, who struggles with language barriers while striving to build a life in Hong Kong — over 1,500 kilometers away from her hometown in Shandong — Ma says she found herself mirroring that same isolation.

With The Dumpling Queen highlighting the recent years' surge in films with strong women as leads, such as Her Story and Like a Rolling Stone, Ma sees the trend as encouraging. "It shows that stories about women really connect with theatergoers — there's clearly a real demand for such tales," she says.

"To me, women-centric films aren't about picking a fight — they're about being seen. It's about showing the many challenges women face at home, at work, and in society — and how strong they can be in getting through them," adds Ma.

"The Dumpling Queen is that kind of story. It's not trying to hammer home a message about gender. It simply tells Zang's journey, and through that, shows that a woman's strength doesn't mean being tough all the time — it's about staying true to what you believe in, holding on to your passion, and having the courage to keep going, no matter what," says the actress.